Florence Pugh has revealed the reason why she responded to body-shaming comments about her sheer Valentino dress.
The British actor, who was recently named Valentino’s newest brand ambassador, opened up about the backlash she faced when she decided to wear a transparent pink Valentino gown to the label’s haute couture show in Rome last July. In an interview with the New York Times published on 26 April, Pugh shared that she was “surprised” by the negative reaction the dress received.
“I did have a lot of positive comments, but I was surprised that people felt they were allowed to be really awful and say some disgusting things because of me showing my nipples,” she told the Times. Nearly one year later, the Don’t Worry Darling star has maintained that the tulle sheer dress – which showed Pugh’s breasts – wasn’t sexual at all.
“Even though the dress was daring, it wasn’t in any way gratuitous. It wasn’t over-sexualised,” she said. “It was basically this beautiful dress and this beautiful fabric, showing off whatever it was that I had underneath.”
“I just could not wrap my head around the fact that showing my breasts was causing such anger — to the point where people were saying that if I got hurt, I deserved it. That was why I had to comment.”
Following the backlash, Pugh issued a statement on social media after “so many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny t***’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested’”.
Pugh told her critics that “not a wink of me was nervous” to wear the gown “before, during or even now after” being bodyshamed. “What’s been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman’s body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see,” she wrote, adding, “It isn’t the first time and certainly won’t be the last time a woman will hear what’s wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers. What’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be.”
Pugh went on to say that she’s comfortable with “the intricacies of my body” and content with “all of the ‘flaws’ I couldn’t bear to look at when I was 14”, before calling out her critics.
“I’ve lived in my body for a long time. I’m fully aware of my breast size and am not scared of it,” she wrote. “What’s more concerning is… Why are you so scared of breasts? Small? Large? Left? Right? Only one? Maybe none? What. Is. So. Terrifying.”
The 27-year-old actor went on to defend her controversial Valentino dress numerous times, most recently when she appeared on the cover of Vogue’s January 2023 issue. While addressing criticism over her decision to wear the sheer gown, Pugh said it was the problem of body shamers if they were offended.
“I’ve never been scared of what’s underneath the fabric,” she told Vogue. “If I’m happy in it, then I’m gonna wear it. Of course, I don’t want to offend people, but I think my point is: How can my nipples offend you that much?”
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar in August, Pugh also claimed the backlash was largely because “it aggravated [people] that [she] was comfortable” with her breasts. “I was comfortable with my small breasts. And showing them like that – it aggravated [people] that I was comfortable,” she said.
The Little Women star acknowledged that she knew her outfit choice would draw attention, considering she and designer Pierpaolo Piccioli had decided to remove the lining of the dress to make it completely transparent. “It was just alarming, how perturbed they were,” she added. “They were so angry that I was confident, and they wanted to let me know that they would never w**k over me. Well, don’t.”
On 26 April, Florence Pugh was announced as the new face of Valentino. In a campaign photographed by Steven Meisel, the actor posed with various Valentino Rockstud handbags as she made a variety of expressions for the camera. “As you can see...I’m pretty shocked and ecstatic to announce that my @maisonvalentino campaign is here,” Pugh captioned an Instagram post announcing her new partnership.
“Truly an honour to continue creating art with my family at Valentino. Working with talented people is one thing, but to work with talented people who are great friends feeds the soul! And this campaign truly did feed the soul. Thank you for letting me be me,” she wrote.
The Midsommar actor has rocked a number of jaw-dropping Valentino looks over the years. She recently sat front-row at Valentino’s fall 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week, where she sported another see-through ensemble. Pugh turned heads when she arrived at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling in a dramatic black tulle gown from Valentino’s fall/winter 2022-2023 Haute Couture collection.
She even walked the “champagne” carpet at the 2023 Oscars wearing a beige, strapless taffeta dress from Valentino. The bold fashion moment, complete with a flowing train and ruffled sleeves, was also the inspiration behind many viral memes of the night.
Florence Pugh is expected to cement her relationship with the Italian fashion house at the Met Gala 2023, which takes place on 1 May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Not only will it be Pugh’s first-ever Met Gala, but she’ll also attend with Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli as her date.
